News that a studio is planning a sequel before the first movie is even released always smacks of their desperation for ever increasing mounds of sweet, sweet cash. (Or, Scrooge McDuck-like vaults of gold coins.) But it happens a lot, and that alone rarely deters audiences from seeing the second movie if the first wasn't absolutely abysmal. It is much more rare, however, to see the creative types involved in filmmaking blustering about their potential franchise(s), though some are more smug than others. And when it happens, it's at least worth hearing them out, because if anybody is the authority on the sequel to an unreleased film, it's the people who ought to be genuinely passionate about the material. Right? Right.

Granted, Prometheus has yet to hit theaters in North America, but it has been released elsewhere and done not-too-shabbily for itself with critics and box office receipts, but it is still at least two days premature for 20th Century Fox to make an official announcement. But that hasn't stopped Damon Lindelof from discussing the possibility of a sequel to Ridley Scott's return to science fiction horror, of course The Hollywood Reporter probably pressed the issue first. Lindelof made sure to mention that he was definitely doing the enigmatic 1952 for Disney, and hopefully a new television show, before he would necessarily be ready to work on Prometheus 2Paradise, but the way he tells it, the director was keen to consider a second movie in the midst of developing the first:

"Ridley was very interested in talking about, 'What are the answers to the questions that Prometheus is posing that are not necessarily definitively spelled out in the body of Prometheus?'... I said to him, we should be prepared for people to feel frustrated if we're going to be withholding, so we have to be very careful about what we're saving for later. Because it's not a foregone conclusion that there are going to be sequels, and so if there isn't a sequel, just be comfortable with what we gave them in this movie... The audience is given a little more information than the characters in the movie have... Ridley was very confident and assured in saying, 'I'm very comfortable with exactly what Prometheus is providing.'"

You would not be blamed if Damon Lindelof talking about answers to mysteries that may not have answers makes you a bit queasy. But while preparing for a sequel, or even a franchise, before tickets have been sold might be the height of Tinsletown hubris, it sounds like Lindelof's "Lost" background provided him a few lessons in managing audience expectations. Honestly, that's something Ridley Scott hasn't really had to worry about in his career -- not to this degree, anyway. However, if you're still worried that Prometheus will be too clever for it's own good, keep in mind that it wasn't until Aliens that we had any idea what the xenomorphs were. Alien was still radass for seven years.

Speaking of, in his most intriguing comment, I think Lindelof finally settled, without question, that Prometheus is, indeed, a prequel to the 1979 classic:

"[T]his movie has two children: One of these children grows up to be Alien, but the other child is going to grow up, and God knows what happens to them. And that's what the sequel to Prometheus would be."

As another non-iron-based-blood extraterrestrial from a franchise Lindelof has ties to was fond of saying, Fascinating.

Rob Payne also writes the comic The Unstoppable Force, tweets on the Twitter @RobOfWar, and his wares can be purchased here and here (if you're into that sort of thing). At this point, even after reading less-than-stellar reviews, he's pretty sure he can't not be excited for this.